22 DEEP CHANNEL OF RIVER. Chap. T. 



river bottom appears to be a succession of immense sub- 

 merged sandbanks, having, when the stream is low, from 

 one to four feet of water on them. The main channel runs 

 for some distance between the sandbank and the river's 

 bank, with a depth in the dry season varying from five to 

 fifteen feet, and a current of nearly two knots an hour. It 

 then turns and flows along the lower edge of the sandbank 

 in a diagonal direction across the river, and continues this 

 process, winding from bank to bank repeatedly during the 

 day's sail, making expert navigators on the ocean feel help- 

 lessly at sea on the river. On these crossings the channel 

 is shallowest. It is in general pretty clearly defined. In 

 calm weather there is a peculiar boiling up of its water 

 from some action below. With a light breeze the Qwete 

 assumes a characteristic ripple, and when the wind freshens 

 and blows up the river, as it usually does from May to 

 November, the waves on it are larger than those of other 

 parts of the river, and a line of small breakers marks the 

 edge of the shoal-bank above. 



Finding the "Pearl's" draught too great for that part 

 of the river near the island of Simbo, where the branch 

 called the Doto is given off to the Kongone on the right 

 bank, and another named Chinde departs to the secret 

 canal already mentioned on the left, the goods belonging 

 to the expedition were taken out of her, and placed on 

 one of the grassy islands about forty miles from the bar. 

 The " Pearl * then left us, and we had to part with our good 

 friends Duncan and Skead ; the former for Ceylon, the 

 latter to return to his duties as Government Surveyor at 

 the Cape. 



Of those who eventually did the work of the expedition the 

 majority took a sober common-sense view of the enterprise 



